Riot Games announced a major crackdown on smurfing, boosting, and account sharing in League of Legends. Product Manager Drew Levin revealed these sweeping new policies in a recent developer update, showing the company’s commitment to improving competitive integrity and the new player experience.
The crackdown targets three main problems: smurfing (experienced players creating new accounts to play against beginners), boosting (players using others’ accounts to artificially inflate their rank), and purchased or botted accounts. Riot made it clear that only accounts personally leveled and used solely by their owner will remain safe from enforcement.
What really stands out about this announcement is Riot’s admission that these changes could hurt their short-term business metrics through fewer microtransactions from banned alt accounts. “Taking the long view means accepting some short-term downside to fix long-term issues,” the company stated, prioritizing game health over immediate profits.
This policy shift comes after years of community complaints about smurfs ruining the experience for both new and existing players. Many newcomers quit the game after facing skilled opponents pretending to be beginners, damaging League‘s reputation and player retention.
The crackdown is now possible thanks to improved security measures, including the implementation of Riot Vanguard (originally developed for Valorant) and upgrades to the matchmaking system. The TrueSkill 2 algorithm will be expanded to enable faster and more accurate skill assessments for new accounts, making it harder to manipulate the system.
Importantly, Riot clarified that players who create and manually level alt accounts for practicing different roles won’t be targeted unless they intentionally lose games to lower their rank. The focus remains on botted, shared, and commercially traded accounts, as well as deliberate rank manipulation.
Old dogs, new tricks
For more than a decade, Riot’s approach to smurfing was pretty relaxed, relying on matchmaking tweaks rather than direct action. This announcement marks a big change in company strategy, and lines up with other recent efforts to improve the new player experience through tutorials, game modes, and accessibility updates.
Implementation details will be rolled out bit by bit, with ongoing detection and ban waves targeting violators. While some players worry about longer queue times at higher skill levels, Riot thinks that better match quality and a friendlier experience for new players will make it worthwhile.
